18 years for terrorist who wounded eight in Tel Aviv

Zofan, 21, was convicted of attempted murder, injury with serious intent, robbery, illegal residency, conspiracy to commit a crime.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
Tel Aviv terror attack 311 (photo credit: REUTERS/ Nir Elias)
Tel Aviv terror attack 311
(photo credit: REUTERS/ Nir Elias)
A Kalkilya man who left eight people wounded in an attack near a south Tel Aviv nightclub will go to prison for 18 years, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled on Thursday.
Muhammad Bin Said Zofan, 21, was convicted of attempted murder, injury with serious intent, robbery, illegal residency and conspiracy to commit a crime.
Last August, Zofan carjacked a taxi at knife-point and rammed it into Border Police officers Or Hakim and Albert Sabah and a civilian bystander, Itay Weinberg, before going on a stabbing spree.
Zofan shouted, “Allahu Akbar!” (God is great) as he swerved into border policemen outside the Ha’oman 17 night club on Salameh Street. He went on to brutally stab a club security guard before the manager, Yitzhak Assaraf, and two other security guards, Oleg Chritov and Grigory Sokolov, managed to subdue him. The struggle left the three men wounded.
Zofan’s defense counsel argued that the court should take into account when passing sentence that the 23-year-old had not belonged to any Palestinian terror group and that he had admitted to the charges.
Judges Sarah Dotan, Shaul Shohet and Daphna Avnieli said Zofan had tried to explain his motives to the court but had refused to express any remorse.
Immediately before the attack, the Kalkilya native had been living in the country illegally, making a living by doing odd jobs, and sleeping in an abandoned apartment next to the Siksik mosque in Jaffa.
The indictment said he and another man, Muhammad Biari, had plotted to commit several other attacks against Jewish civilians and Israeli security forces.